The Recipe of Leadership

I get asked many times by my students, "why can't people decide who is the best leader?" that is a tough question to answer but I think I have found the answer. One day during my leadership class, I was covering traits of a leader and realized that the traits (as listed by John Maxwell) could be also looked upon as having a certain "amount" for each trait.  As an example, if a leader is viewed as having integrity, then that leader can have a small or large amount of integrity. To put it another way, a scale from 0 to 100.

Therefore, as we examine leaders, each have certain traits. Within each trait, an amount can also be examined. To finalize this examination, each leader have certain traits, a certain amount and therefore it sums to a "recipe" of leadership.

Take chocolate chip cookies. Most everyone loves chocolate chip cookies. Within this love for the cookie, a favorite recipe comes to the forefront for everyone. Maybe it's your Grandmother's, Mom's, or a store brand. Each of these cookies have a certain recipe. We like the cookies based upon the ingredients AND the amount of the ingredients. Same with leadership: traits and the amount of the trait. People like THEIR leader based upon the "recipe" of the leader. Yes, they are a leader, but not everyone likes the leader's taste and recipe, just like chocolate chip cookies....